Bhadra International India Limited - Airport Ground Handling

Bhadra International is poised to emerge as the largest privately owned Ground Handling service provider in India. Bhadra International has already been accorded the security clearance by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) for all the seven Airports.

Monday, 18 March 2013

The recent dismissal of a petition
by the Madras High Court could pave the way for Bhadra International, a ground
handling support Service Company at Chennai airport, in securing more contracts
from various airlines.

Bhadra provides ground handling support
service. However, due to the petition most of the airlines used the services of
Air India instead of Bhadra. In Chennai, the company currently has contracts
with six passenger airlines and 17 cargo airlines.

“The court’s decision will pave the
way for airlines to sign a contract with us,” said a senior official of Bhadra
on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

They also sought to direct the CBI
to hold an inquiry into the issuance of tender for providing comprehensive
ground handling services to various domestic and international airlines in both
airports and file a report within a timeframe.

Dismissing the petition, a Division
Bench noted that the Federation of Indian Airlines and other airline carriers
had filed a similar petition in Delhi High Court and the same was dismissed,
says a PTI report. The petitioners in contended that eligibility conditions of
the tender were altered to suit Bhadra
International, a joint venture consortium partnering Novia International
Consulting APS of Denmark. AAI, authorities of Chennai and Kolkata airports
denied the allegations, says the report. The writ petition was filed in
December 2012.

Bhadra
bagged the contract through a tender under the ground-handling policy of
the Ministry of Civil Aviation. , Bhadra, along with Air India and AAI, were
allowed to do ground handling work and airlines were not allowed to appoint
their own agency for the work.

The tender was awarded in favour of Bhadra, which has set up the
necessary infrastructure at the Chennai airport and signed up with three or
four airlines, a senior of a private airline said.

“All the allegations made against us
were proved wrong with the High Court ruling, said the official of Bhadra. Due
to the case, they were hesitating to sign the agreement,” he said. The official
said that the since many of the airlines have a contract with AAI, they need to
first terminate it, and sign a fresh contract with Bhadra. This may take some
time, he said.

An official of a leading
international cargo carrier, who did not want to be quoted in the story, said
the airline’s contract with AAI was till March 31. “We will have to wait to
hear from our headquarters whether they will renew or terminate the contract with
AAI, and switch over to Bhadra,” he said.

Dismissing a PIL, a Division Bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and
Aruna Jagadeesan noted that the Federation of Indian Airlines and other airline
carriers had filed a similar petition in Delhi High Court and the same was
dismissed. A PIL filed by Oveyam Ranjan
and Indian Airports Ground Handling Agents
Association, Bangalore, sought to quash an Airports Authority of India (AAI)
order of September 9, 2009, awarding license to provide ground handling
services in Chennai and Kolkata airports.

They also sought to direct the CBI to hold an inquiry into the issuance of
tender for providing comprehensive ground handling services to various domestic
and international airlines in both airports and file a report within a
timeframe.

The tender was awarded in favour of Bhadra
International (India) Limited.

The petitioners contended that eligibility conditions of the tender were
altered to suit Bhadra
International, a joint venture consortium partnering along with Novia
International Consulting APS of Denmark. AAI, authorities of Chennai and
Kolkata airports denied the allegations. Dismissing their petitions, the bench
said the present petitioners have filed the petition as a PIL and stated that
no similar petitions are filed in any other High Courts at the same time. The bench said that the writ petitions have
been filed, since they "found the weakness in the case before the Delhi
High Court, the interested persons have prompted a third party/ the petitioners
to file the present writ petition as a PIL that too in the eleventh hour."
These petitions were filed "undoubtedly with an ill intention of
preventing Bhadra International to commence its operation," they said.

Dismissing a PIL, a Division Bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and
Aruna Jagadeesan noted that the Federation of Indian Airlines and other airline
carriers had filed a similar petition in Delhi High Court and the same was
dismissed. A PIL filed by Oveyam Ranjan
and Indian Airports Ground Handling Agents
Association, Bangalore, sought to quash an Airports Authority of India (AAI)
order of September 9, 2009, awarding license to provide ground handling
services in Chennai and Kolkata airports.

They also sought to direct the CBI to hold an inquiry into the issuance of
tender for providing comprehensive ground handling services to various domestic
and international airlines in both airports and file a report within a
timeframe.

The tender was awarded in favour of Bhadra
International (India) Limited.

The petitioners contended that eligibility conditions of the tender were
altered to suit Bhadra
International, a joint venture consortium partnering along with Novia
International Consulting APS of Denmark. AAI, authorities of Chennai and
Kolkata airports denied the allegations. Dismissing their petitions, the bench
said the present petitioners have filed the petition as a PIL and stated that
no similar petitions are filed in any other High Courts at the same time. The bench said that the writ petitions have
been filed, since they "found the weakness in the case before the Delhi
High Court, the interested persons have prompted a third party/ the petitioners
to file the present writ petition as a PIL that too in the eleventh hour."
These petitions were filed "undoubtedly with an ill intention of
preventing Bhadra International to commence its operation," they said.

Chennai, Mar 12 (PTI) Madras High Court today allowed private sector firm Bhadra
International to commence its operation in ground handling services in
Chennai and Kolkata airports. Dismissing a PIL, a Division Bench comprising
Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and Aruna Jagadeesan noted that the Federation of
Indian Airlines and other airline carriers had filed a similar petition in
Delhi High Court and the same was dismissed. A PIL filed by Oveyam Ranjan and
Indian Airports
Ground Handling Agents Association, Bangalore, sought to quash an
Airports Authority of India (AAI) order of September 9, 2009, awarding license
to provide ground handling services in Chennai and Kolkata airports. They also
sought to direct the CBI to hold an inquiry into the issuance of tender for
providing comprehensive ground handling services to various domestic and
international airlines in both airports and file a report within a timeframe.
The tender was awarded in favour of Bhadra
International (India) Limited. The petitioners contended that eligibility
conditions of the tender were altered to suit Bhadra
International, a joint venture consortium partnering along with Novia
International Consulting APS of Denmark. AAI, authorities of Chennai and
Kolkata airports denied the allegations. Dismissing their petitions, the bench
said the present petitioners have filed the petition as a PIL and stated that
no similar petitions are filed in any other High Courts at the same time. The
bench said that the writ petitions have been filed, since they "found the
weakness in the case before the Delhi High Court, the interested persons have
prompted a third party/ the petitioners to file the present writ petition as a
PIL that too in the eleventh hour." These petitions were filed
"undoubtedly with an ill intention of preventing Bhadra International to
commence its operation," they said. (MORE) PTI DSJ RC MNS MVV

Dismissing a PIL, a Division Bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and
Aruna Jagadeesan noted that the Federation of Indian Airlines and other airline
carriers had filed a similar petition in Delhi High Court and the same was
dismissed.

A PIL filed by Oveyam Ranjan and Indian Airports
Ground Handling Agents Association, Bangalore, sought
to quash an Airports
Authority of India (AAI) order of September 9, 2009,
awarding license to provide ground handling services in Chennai and Kolkata
airports.

They also sought to direct the CBI to hold an inquiry into the issuance of
tender for providing comprehensive ground
handling services to various domestic and international
airlines in both airports and file a report within a timeframe.

The tender was awarded in favour of Bhadra
International (India) Limited.

The petitioners contended that eligibility conditions of the tender were
altered to suit Bhadra
International, a joint venture consortium partnering
along with Novia International Consulting APS of Denmark. AAI, authorities of
Chennai and Kolkata airports denied the allegations.

Dismissing their petitions, the bench said the present petitioners have filed
the petition as a PIL and stated that no similar petitions are filed in any
other High Courts at the same time.

The bench said that the writ petitions have been filed, since they "found
the weakness in the case before the Delhi High Court, the interested persons
have prompted a third party/ the petitioners to file the present writ petition
as a PIL that too in the eleventh hour."

These petitions were filed "undoubtedly with an ill intention of
preventing Bhadra International
to commence its operation," they said.

The petitioner, who posed as the president of a labour union, has not raised
any issue with regard to any labour problem so far and this writ petition has
been filed by her only at the behest of some interested persons, the bench
said.

"The bona fides of the petitioners were at stake and given the materials
available on record, we have no doubt or hesitation to hold that the
petitioners have resorted to this prompted and personal interest litigation at
the behest of the persons who approached the Delhi High Court and trying to
create obstacles for the successful bidder to commence its operation," it
said.

"This, in our view, is nothing but a proxy litigation indulging in by the
petitioners. The CBI has conducted an inquiry into the whole episode earlier
and filed its report giving clean chit to the issue in hand," it said.

Refusing the accept the contentions of the petitions that only with an ulterior
motive, Chennai and Kolkata airports were clubbed together by officials, the
bench said, "since the said decision is not only the policy decision of
the government, but the same has not caused any financial loss to the AAI or
the government of India."

"In a commercial contract matter like the one in hand, if a free hand is
not given to the government, it would result in the cost to the
exchequer," the bench said.

About Me

Bhadra International is poised to emerge as the largest privately owned Ground Handling service provider in India. Bhadra International has already been accorded the security clearance by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) for all the seven Airports.